Friday, June 6, 2008

Everyone knows that's Aunti Anne, Poppy, Grandma and Uncle Paul. Name the man and boy in the middle!

Update: Reader writes:

the picture was taken in nyc. uncle sonny, eleanor's husband. eleanor was poppy's sister, and next to sonny is gene bouchard. gene died at 60 and sonny, his father is also gone.dad was in the navy. at first i thought it was a picture of dad, but, after i enlarged, it was uncle paul.

We paddle into the sandy river's edge. We walk up the bank and into a sunny, green area. There are no footprints. As we walk through the bushes we get stung by the prickers. Ouch! We stay here for awhile and keep a lookout.

Mt. Tom. The communication towers blink at us. I always get a good signal from here. We paddle on.

We see a shape in the distance.

Branches break from trees along the banks and drift till they get caught close to shore. We like how they create shapes and personalities. This one will probably stay all summer. We'll call him Leopold!

Off The Shelf: The Finest Hours by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman

From Booklist: In a 1952 nor’easter, the distress of two ships off Cape Cod initiated a dramatic Coast Guard operation recounted here by coauthors Tougias and Sherman. Both vessels were World War II surplus, cheaply built, unwisely kept in service, and broken in two by the storm. All four halves floated, for the moment, and the authors’ narrative accordingly tracks four separate search-and-rescue efforts that form the complete story. The most prominent, in the press at the time and in official honors conferred afterward, concerned one motorized lifeboat, a puny 36 feet long and manned by four men, dispatched to do battle with the maelstrom’s towering waves. This is the seascape of The Perfect Storm, and the authors do justice to the peril in a tight account of the action. Plotting the course of CG36500, the utilitarian name of the lifeboat captained by Bernie Webber (interviewed for this book), Tougias and Sherman reach their peak of tension in the sink-or-swim moments when mariners abandoned ship and chanced their lives on their rescuers’ skill and bravery. An excellent entry in the disaster-at-sea genre. --Gilbert Taylor

A collision of memories, time and space

Our focus is on Western Massachusetts. Our postings are mostly of common images that folks might come across in their everyday journeys. Wall graffiti, lampposts, ticket booths, street scenes, wildlife, forests and discarded objects are regular themes.
We started blogging with a focus on the history of our families and how the places they have lived evolved over time. We are most interested in how the past and present collide and launching the reader into a place where memories of prior experiences and places mingle with their everyday lives.
-- Bob Genest